White-on-white research: a study of white qualitative researcher positionality among white participants

Abstract

Researcher positionality is widely accepted as a phenomenon to be understood and used to strengthen the qualitative research process. However, consideration of white researchers’ positionality has largely centered on situations in which they are “outsider” researchers in spaces that do not reflect their own racial identities. To build knowledge about the effects of researcher whiteness upon research in white spaces with white participants, we analyze the first author’s experiences amid qualitative research with white parents and youth within Chicago K-12 schools. Literature about researcher positionality and whiteness guides our analysis. We argue that white researchers’ work with white participants reveals whiteness’ mixed powers. Whiteness, if unchecked, can distort what white researchers learn, but can be a valuable research tool if acknowledged and fully interrogated throughout the inquiry process. From our findings, we draw implications for qualitative researchers, qualitative research methods instruction, and future “white-on-white” research.

Keywords:

• Researcher positionality
• whiteness
• school-based qualitative research

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank Andrea Evans, Linn Posey-Maddox, Amy Stich and IJQSE’s anonymous reviewers for their extremely helpful feedback on our work, Julia Allison for her support of the study in its early months, and the individuals who collaborated on original data collection and analysis for the two studies we reference: Landis Fryer, Briellen Griffin, Zareen Kamal, Annmarie Valdes, and Beth Wright Costello.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 This article is co-authored but includes passages narrated by the first author as her positionality is our analysis’ focus.

2 All school and participant names are pseudonyms.

3 For this section of the manuscript, this paper’s authors agreed that the first author would narrate in the first person to explicitly identify her direct experiences of whiteness during the research process. All insights about positionality and whiteness in this paper were collectively generated by both authors.

4 This team member is often perceived as phenotypically white, an experience she described during research team meetings, and has a white-associated first name. She identifies as Latina.

5 I did not inform the college students I brought to Vista that I was conducting qualitative research there.

Additional information

Funding

The present research was financially supported by Spencer Foundation.

Notes on contributors

Kate L. Phillippo

Kate L. Phillippo is a Professor at Loyola University Chicago’s Schools of Social Work and Education. She studies stakeholder experience and enactment of education policy, contextual influences upon education policy implementation, school-society relationships and student wellness policy and practice. She is the author of A Contest without Winners: How Students Experience Competitive School Choice (2019, University of Minnesota Press).

Janese L. Nolan

Janese L. Nolan is a doctoral student in Cultural and Educational Policy Studies at Loyola University Chicago's School of Education. Her research focuses on Black teacher retention and attrition, centering on millennial women teachers. As a former high school English teacher, she uses anti-racist frameworks to detect and dismantle whiteness in school spaces in her research and teaching.